DPP v Nelson

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Finnegan J.
• Judgment Date: 31 July 2008
• Neutral Citation: [2008] IECCA 118
• Date: 31 July 2008
• Court: Court of Criminal Appeal
• Docket Number: 243/07

DPP v Nelson

THE PEOPLE (AT THE SUIT OF THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS)

.v.

BRIAN NELSON

APPLICANT

[2008] IECCA 118

243/07

COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL

CRIMINAL LAW

Sentence

Severity - Drugs offences - Error in principle - Court unable to evaluate reasons for sentence - Appropriate sentence for offence - Circumstances of case - Value and nature of drugs - Seriousness of offence - Mitigation - Value of early plea where applicant caught red handed - Co-operation with gardaí - Personal circumstances - DPP v Dunne (Unrep, CCA, 17/10/2002) and DPP v Galvin (Unrep, CCA, 14/2/2005) considered - Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 (No 12), s 15A - Appeal allowed; sentence of 8 years imprisonment substituted (243/2007 - CCA - 31/7/2008) [2008] IECCA 118

People (DPP) v Nelson

MISUSE OF DRUGS ACT 1977 S15A

CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 1999 S4

DPP v DUNNE 2003 4 IR 87

DPP v GARAVAN UNREP CCA KEARNS 14.2.2005 2006/18/3767

1 Judgment of the Court (ex tempore) delivered on the 31st day of July 2008 by Finnegan J.

Finnegan J.

2 Perhaps the starting point in this case is that the court is faced with a difficulty in that it is not possible to divine from the judgment with certainty how the learned trial judge arrived at the sentence and in particular how she dealt with the provisions of section 15 A of the Misuse of Drugs Act1977 as inserted by section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1999. It is in itself an error in principle when this court is not in a position to evaluate the thought processes which resulted in the particular sentence and in those circumstances it falls to this court to look at the circumstances of the case and determine for itself in the light of the information available in the transcript the appropriate sentence for this particular offence and this particular offender.

3 The information available to us is that on the 6^th March 2006 the applicant was stopped driving his van at the junction of South Circular Road and Bulfin Road. The Gardai were acting on information. When the van was searched a very large quantity of cocaine was found, €564, 173.00 in value. That led to a charge under section 15A. So the value of the drugs and the nature of the drugs are factors in the seriousness of the offence. What has to be taken into account in addition by way of mitigation is the fact that he did plead guilty at an early date. However it is...